David Cameron Just Signed A Brilliant Deal To Sell Pig Semen To China

A judge inspects a pig
during the 160th and final Royal Show in Stoneleigh, central
England July 7, 2009.REUTERS/Darren
Staples

British Prime Minister David Cameron was in China for the past
three days for a trip that has seen some
controversial moments. However, there's at least one clear
success: The United Kingdom has signed a deal to export porcine
semen to China that will net British farmers a reported £45
million ($73 million) a year.

Yes, pig sperm.

According
to a report in the Guardian, beginning next year British pigs
will be taken to one of four artificial insemination centers in
the U.K. and their semen will then fly to China (either frozen or
fresh) and be used to inseminate the Chinese pig population.

Big trades of sperm may seem unusual, but in the world of pig
farming this makes complete sense. The Chinese pork industry is
staggeringly huge — more than half of
the pigs in the world are believed to live in China and it is
a major source of protein for Chinese citizens — but the industry
is out of date and inefficient. Incredibly, despite its huge pig
population, China became a net importer of pork in 2008.

British pigs could help. Not only is their meat considered high
quality (for example, Berkshire pork, one of the most lauded
varieties in the world, originates in the U.K.), it's a world
leader in breeding economical pigs: Chris Jackson, export manager
of the British Pig Association,
told the Financial Times that British pigs can grow faster
than their Chinese counterparts, and they eat less food and
reproduce quicker. Amazingly, the cost of a pig
in the U.K. is reported to be half that of one in China.

Crucially, the deal is a big win for British pork farmers, who
have struggled domestically for years. The industry is reported
to net around £300 million ($490 million) a year, but
that's down from double that a decade ago, and pork prices
are severely constrained by supermarket shoppers' demands for
cheap meat. Sperm is one way to make money off high-quality pigs
without affecting the domestic supply, and there are broader
hopes within the U.K. agricultural industry that Britain could
turn itself into something like the Saudi Arabia of sperm,
selling its "liquid
gold" not only from pigs, but also from cattle and sheep, to
China and other places all around the world.

There's another neat detail to the U.K.-China deal too: Pig
trotters (feet) may be next. Stewart Houston, chairman of the
British Pig Executive,
told the FT that semen was a "big deal" but "nothing compared
with the trotters." While pig trotters aren't commonly used in
British cuisine, they are considered a delicacy in China — in
October a Chinese official was suspended after racking up
bills totaling 700,000 yuan ($115,000) at a pig trotter
restaurant over three years. The U.K. government believes
trotters, essentially waste products in Britain, could net U.K.
farmers £7.5 million ($12 million) a year if an agreement is
made.